The Asymmetry of Psychopathy’s Association with Negative and Positive Empathy

Psychopathy is reliably linked to lower empathy. However, this association has focused on negative empathy (i.e., the vicarious experience of others’ distress, pain, and suffering) while neglecting positive empathy (i.e., the vicarious experience of others’ happiness, joy, and pleasure). Across four studies and 1,004 participants (547 U.S. adults from Prolific, 457 diverse undergraduates), antagonistic and disinhibited forms of psychopathy demonstrated stronger negative associations with positive empathy compared to negative empathy. Yet when participants completed a behavioral task that provided participants with opportunities to engage in empathic engagement with virtual strangers, participants exhibited no preference for negative versus positive empathy based on their psychopathic traits. These findings suggest that psychopathy, especially the antagonistic and disinhibited facets thereof, may be more accurately characterized by self-reported tendencies away from positive than negative empathy.